


Backstage at the Circus; or, Kedamono and Popee Are Dead

by tittysatan



Category: Popee the Performer (Anime)
Genre: Existentialism, Gen, that is a rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead reference in the title, why yes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10009265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tittysatan/pseuds/tittysatan
Summary: Kedamono knows something is very, very wrong. In the brief moments between performances, he talks to Popee and tries to piece it all together.





	

"I don't know," Kedamono sighed, a neutral expression on his mask. "Don't you ever think about why we're here?"

"What, in the circus?" Popee asked, focusing more on the knives he was juggling than his canine companion.

Kedamono's mask slipped off, revealing a slightly more annoyed one beneath. "In the circus, in the middle of the desert, forced to perform schadenfreude for--" he waved a hand meaningfully "-- _them_."

Popee glanced at Kedamono for just a second. "Nah, not really?"

"I should have known," the wolf said, with a shrug, mask shifting to despondency, than alarm as an uptempo song began to play.

"Ah, it's time!" Popee exclaimed, face cracking into something resembling a grin.

"Oh god, oh no..." Kedamono muttered, but it was too late. The show had begun.

This time, Kedamono discovered he could will things into being through pantomime. It ended with both of them falling into a giant crevasse Popee exploded in the middle of the circus.

 

* * *

 

"All I'm saying is, something seems very wrong about all of this!" Kedamono said, pacing behind Popee as the clown practiced walking atop a ball. "Do you remember anything before you came here? I certainly don't."

"Let's see, the first thing I remember is..." Popee muttered, wobbling back and forth. "I heard the music, and then I cut you in half with a chainsaw."

"That's the first thing I remember too!" Kedamono cried, rivers of tears on his mask.

Popee crossed his arms, frowning down at the wolf. "Don't be such a baby, you were fine."

"Of course I was fine! We're always _fine_ , that's the part that bothers me!"

"I don't know, I think it's convenient."

"There is something seriously wrong with being fine after getting cut in half with a chainsaw," Kedamono said, mask perfectly deadpan.

Popee started walking again, moving the ball in tight circles around Kedamono. "Every time something like that happens, we're always fine. Doesn't that mean it's normal?"

Kedamono sat down, propping his head in a paw. "I don't think anything about this place is normal."

Before Popee had a chance to reply, the music started, and he fell off the ball and onto his head, a ring of stars circling it as he sat up. "Time already?"

"Not again...!" Kedamono lamented, mask anguished.

This time, Popee tried to swallow a sword bigger than he was, and got impaled by it. It ended with Kedamono in Popee's stomach, both of them run through.

 

* * *

 

"I'm sure Papi knows something about what's going on here," Kedamono muttered, peeking out at the ringmaster from behind a tent. "He just shows up out of nowhere, acting like he owns the place..."

"Why don't you ask him, then?" Popee said, not taking his eyes off the TV screen.

"...because he scares me."

Popee glanced over towards where Papi was sitting at a table, drinking tea, the light gleaming off his sun headpiece. "Good point."

Kedamono sat down next to Popee and stared at the TV. "I get the feeling that if I tried to ask questions about this place, something really awful would happen to me next time. I mean, something worse than usual."

"If you really care that much, why not risk it? Whatever happens to you, you'll be fine."

Kedamono's mask glared at Popee. "You don't know that for sure. Lately it keeps getting crazier and crazier every time."

The music started, and Papi clapped his hands. "Showtime, boys!"

This time, Kedamono shot Popee with a rocket launcher and went back in time to try and stop himself. It ended with an entire circusful of Kedamonos, multiplied by too many trips.

 

* * *

 

"Alright," Kedamono said, clapping a paw on Popee's shoulder, mask determined. "I'm going to do it."

"...do what?" Popee asked, looking up from the coin trick he was practicing.

"Ask Papi if he knows anything about this place, of course!" Kedamono said, giving the clown's arm a whack. "Whatever he does to me can't be _that_ bad, right?"

There was an uncomfortably long pause before Popee forced a grin. "Right!"

Kedamono's confident mask wavered for a moment before falling off, revealing one that was panicked and sweaty. "Come on, at least _act_ like it'll be okay! This might be our answer to why we're here!"

" _Your_ answer," Popee said, giving Kedamono a thumbs up. "I had nothing to do with this. Go on!"

Kedamono took a deep breath. After picking up his determined mask off the ground and sticking it back on, he walked up to where Papi was tinkering with his car. "E-excuse me!"

"Yeeees?" Papi asked, smile uncomfortably wide and toothy.

"I was....just wondering...." Kedamono stammered. "Do you have any idea what this place is...?"

"Ahaha, very funny!" Papi said, standing and throwing his arms wide. "A circus, of course!"

"Actually, I meant... Why this is all happening... What the music is, why we can't die, how long will this--"

"Shhh, shhh," Papi said, cutting Kedamono off with a finger in front of his lips. "Do you really want to know what I think?"

"Yes!"

The ringmaster smiled, staring down at Kedamono, the sun just behind his head casting his face in shadow. "I think there are some questions it's better not to ask."

Kedamono's confident mask finally slipped, leaving a tearfully despondent one in its place. "Y-yes sir."

"Good dog," Papi said, patting Kedamono on the head just as the music began. "Perfect timing! Get ready, everyone!"

"I don't know what I expected," Kedamono sighed.

This time, Papi and Popee got into an escalating contest of strength. It ended when Papi threw the moon into the earth.

 

* * *

 

"Do you ever think we might be dead?" Kedamono asked, sunbathing with an arm over the eyes of his mask.

"I think if nothing that's happened so far has killed us, we're probably not dead," Popee said, sunbathing next to him.

"I don't mean that way! Maybe this place is purgatory, or hell."

Popee stroked his chin, thinking. "Are those the only options?"

Kedamono's mask expressed disbelief. "What else could it be?"

"I guess I just don't think it's as bad as all that," Popee shrugged. "At least it's interesting!"

"What about the time Papi hypnotized you and turned you into him? Was that interesting?"

Popee's eyes glazed over. "Good point."

"I don't think I'd mind so much if I knew what I'd done," Kedamono said, mask grimacing. "Or better yet, how much longer there was."

"There's nothing you can do about it," Popee said, rolling over to warm his back. "We're stuck here."

"That may be true, but I don't have to like it."

The music started, and Kedamono and Popee reluctantly climbed out of their lounge chairs.

This time, Popee tore off his eyelids to dance the Robot more convincingly and found himself unable to sleep as a result. How it ended is better left unsaid.

 

* * *

 

"So what do you think about, Popee?" Kedamono asked, handing the clown knives for him to throw at a target. "Since you don't seem concerned at all with where this is or why we're here."

"Hm... I think about whether or not--" he waved a hand meaningfully "-- _they_ are enjoying the show." Popee took aim and threw, his knife hitting a perfect bullseye.

Kedamono tilted his head to the side, mask puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"We've gone on a lot of times now, haven't we?"

"Thirty-eight, to be exact."

"And it seems like we're supposed to be entertaining them." Another knife hit home right next to the first. "But things keep getting crazier and crazier, and I wonder whether or not they'll stop watching someday."

"Who cares about them when we're trapped in a nuthouse like this?"

Popee turned to Kedamono with an uncharacteristically serious expression. "If we weren't here before _they_ wanted us to entertain them, what do you think will happen to us if they lose interest?"

Kedamono's masks fell away, first expressionless, then growing more and more panicked. "Oh no."

Popee took the last knife from the wolf's limp paw and threw it. "Look at that!" he exclaimed, grinning. "Three for three, dead center!"

Kedamono couldn't even move as the music started.

This time, Kedamono took off his mask to wash his face when he thought everyone was asleep, but got found out. Unlike so many other times, it ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

**Author's Note:**

> I have absolutely no idea who the target audience for this fic is, but I enjoyed writing it.


End file.
